and al-Fayḍ ibn Isḥāq, Salamah ibn Shabīb, Barakah ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥalabī—the weak narrator—ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khubayq al-Anṭākī, and others.

Yūsuf ibn Muslim said, “ʿAlī ibn Bakkār wept until he went blind, and the tears left grooves upon his cheeks.”

I add: He was a horseman on the frontier, a warrior, frequently engaged in raids. It is related from him that he said:

“We met the enemy; the Muslims fled, and my horse fell short. I exclaimed, ‘Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.’ The horse then said, ‘Yes, indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return, for you leave my fodder to So-and-so.’ So I pledged that none but I would attend to it.” (1)

From him, it is also reported: “For me to meet Satan is dearer than to meet Ḥudhayfah al-Marʿashī; I fear I might put on a show for him and thus fall from Allah’s sight.” (2)

Mūsā ibn Ṭarīf said, “A servant-girl would spread ʿAlī ibn Bakkār’s bedding; he would touch it with his hand and say, ‘By Allah, you are fragrant; by Allah, you are cool; by Allah, I shall not lie on you tonight.’ ”

He used to perform the dawn prayer with the same ablution he had kept from the night prayer. (3)

Muṭayyin said, “He died in 207 AH.”

I say: As for the younger ʿAlī ibn Bakkār of Maṣṣīṣah, that is another man; he lived on until the early 240s AH.